Saturday, January 18, 2014

Could Stephen Harper Bring Back the Death Penalty?

I've always thought that capital punishment was one of the things that prevented the United States from being a truly great country. Along with racism, religious bigotry, and the culture of guns and violence.And this only prove my point.Because no nation that executes people, in that manner or any other, can truly call itself civilized. Or claim that its moral values are superior to those of other countries, where the state murders its citizens, like Iran or North Korea.And this is only too clear when you examine where this diseased desire to execute people in the U.S. comes from. And understand that it's a question of history andgeography.Like much of America’s cultural debates, this one has a regional background. Texas executes the most people, about one a month now. Virginia and Oklahoma kill the most per capita. The southern states, the Civil War slave states, are responsible for 85 percent of recent executions.It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that slavery and the War Between the States has a lot to do with their acceptance of the death penalty. Look at West Virginia. It separated from Virginia to join the North during the war, and it has had no recent executions. It abolished the death penalty in 1965. Maryland, another slave state that stuck with the Union, just abolished the death penalty last year. There’s also a strong correlation between lynching and executions: Ten of the top 15 lynching states in our history are the top execution states today.Where racism, violence, and the bloodthirsty commandments of the Old Testament came together in these abominable places of execution, mob violence and murder.

As for me, I could never support the death penalty, no matter how cruel the crime, or how painless the method of execution. For I firmly believe it makes us no better than murderers.I'm aggressive about wanting a kinder, gentler, more civilized world. And how are you supposed to teach children to respect life, and that killing is evil, when the state can kill people legally?So I'm proud that we don't execute people here. Because it's not a deterrent, it's just revenge and barbarism.And I thought we had learned something from our own botched execution of Arthur Lucas, one of the two last prisoners hanged in Canada.

Who had his head practically torn off, when the executioner misjudged his weight.

Bramwell Everitt knew something went wrong when his father came home from the Don Jail with his blue Salvation Army chaplain’s uniform splattered with blood.“Lucas’ head was torn right off. It was hanging just by the sinews of the neck. There was blood all over the floor,” said Everitt in an interview with the Salvation Army’s internal newsletter.But when I read the comments in Canadian newspapers about that botched execution in the U.S., I see that the beasts are still with us. Still howling for blood.And in the darkness of Harperland, with a cruel and vengeful leader who caters to the lowest instincts of the mob, this is deeply disturbing.Many people in Canada continue to voice support for the return of capital punishment, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found. In the online survey of a representative sample of 1,514 Canadian adults, three-in-five respondents (63%) support reinstating the death penalty for murder, which was eliminated in July 1976. Three-in-ten Canadians (30%) are opposed to this course of action.Because what I see there is a wedge issue made to measure for a morally corrupt demagogue like Stephen Harper.

One that could give him a chance to divide the population, pleasure his rabid base, siphon voters away from opposition parties, especially the NDP. Pose as the victim-friendly crime buster who is tough on criminals, especially those who the mob FEELS should be killed. And all he needs is a sensational case, that gets massive media attention, and whips the mob into a frenzy.Like for example, the horrifying case of Luka Magnotta ...

Whose trial is supposed to begin next fall.And whose outcome could give Harper a chance to continue his reactionary crusade against "liberal judges" and the "elite media," and force a referendum on the issue and/or an early election. And of course, distract voters from his many crimes against Canada.Could he do that? Ask yourself how desperate is he? And what does he have left besides his sagging reputation as a "real" economist, and his ghastly quasi-fascist crime agenda?And to those who still don't think it could happen here, like just about all of my friends, I would just say this:I've heard that one before eh? But I'm living in Harperland. So bad things CAN happen here.If you don't understand how Americanised, how polarized, and how brutish many Canadians have become after eight years of Stephen Harper and his ghastly Con regime, you can't recognize the danger.And you STILL don't know the monster...

So you can't imagine to what dark place he might take us. And the moral of this scary story? If we want to save the very soul of this country, and avoid becoming just another version of ugly America.We can't work hard enough to defeat him.And make Canada safe again...Please click here to recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers.

12 comments:

Although I admire your sentiments about this, I really do believe that the crimes of rape, child sexual abuse and 1st degree murder are and should most assuredly be punishable by the death sentence. Gang raping a woman to death should be an automatic death sentence in every civilized country in the world. Fucking a screaming, helpless child should be punishable by death in every civilized country in the world. Planning to cold-bloodedly murder another human being should automatically be punishable by death in every civilized country in the world. You really need to consider the pathology behind the monsters that can commit these types of crimes for once, Simon, and stop doing the knee-jerk reaction thing because it's the "kinder" thing to do. There's no way that monsters like this deserve the right to keep living in any society on earth after committing these types of crimes. Capital punishment is a deterrent if it is properly administered. And the filthy, mindless monsters that would do these things have no right to live at all at your or my or anybody else's expense. I do/will not support feeding and clothing and sheltering them if/when they are found guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. I really believe that anybody who supports this kind of monster in the preservation of their lives in any form is a very deluded and misguided individual and really needs to get out into the world and see just what the fuck is happening out there instead of hiding behind cute, fuzzy little pink platitudes.Anyway, I hate harpie and will still vote NDP but I obviously don't agree with all of their ever-shifting, ever more far-right platforms, either.This was not a personal attack on you, Simon. I hope you don't take it that way. Keep up the great work.

hi anon...don't worry, I don't take it personally. I realize it's an emotional issue, I am genuinely interested in the opinions of my readers, and unlike our Dark Lord I don't believe I own the truth. I also should add that even some of my best friends occasionally share your desire to throttle me or shake me like a rattle. ;)However, I do want to make it clear that if I oppose the death penalty it's not out of concern for the welfare of violent criminals. For I detest them with every bone in my body, as I hate all bullies. But I feel that depriving them of their freedom permanently or for an extended time is far more of a punishment than the death penalty. I know the right-wingers would make people believe that jails are four star hotels, but they are not. And watching life go by, as you rot in a jail cell, is I believe the worst punishment you can inflict on a human being. But as I said in my post I simply refuse to let those criminals drag us down to their own level. I believe that capital punishment inevitable ends up executing the innocent, and only brutalizes a society. Like most humans when I read about some atrocity, I feel a natural desire to hurt the perpetrators, with my own hands. And as a teenager I gave vent to those feelings by attacking bullies as savagely as possible, so I am definitely not guilty of "fuzzy pink platitudes." But now that I'm older, I do try to live up to my own ideals. And the point of this post is to warn people that capital punishment is a weapon that Harper could use to win the next election. So we need to be on our guard...

hi anon...I share your revulsion for rapists, and if I ever got my hands on one I assure you it would not be pretty. But then again where do you draw the line. Is not somebody who drives a young person to suicide, or cheats an old person out of their life savings not equally detestable. So as hard as it is, we simply cannot let ourselves be guided by our feelings alone. For then we really would turn our society into a jungle. The purpose of the law as I see it is not just to punish criminals, but also to make our society safer, and there are many better ways to do that than executing people....

As a late to the game parent (I'm 50, my daughter 3), I have had my anti-death penalty position severely challenged by the heinous crimes committed against children. The savage murder of Victoria Stafford being the one that challenged me to the core of my being. But I fervently disagree with the first two comments here. I won't tap endlessly my feelings, but will just give my two primary reasons. 1) I do not wish to live in a nation where the state has the ability to commit murder, and 2) I believe life sentences in the cases of child killing and brutal gang rapes resulting in death should mean life. Imho, life without parole is a harsher penalty then granting the convicted the easy way out by simply killing them. For me the opinions of Anonymous 6:56 & 7:07 are far and away more cringe worthy then the committed crimes of all the deranged humans combined.

hi Omar...first of all congratulations daddy !!! Well done, good for you. Know you know what it's like to be fifty and feel like eighty. ;)Seriously though, and as I explained above, I oppose the death penalty for the same reasons you do. Life without parole is the worst punishment you can inflict on a violent criminal, and it avoids the possibility of executing the innocent, which I think we can all agree is the ultimate travesty of justice. I would also point out that the reaction of that NDP supporter shows how effective capital punishment can be as a wedge issue, and that should concern us all....

An example that PROVES to me that capital punishment sucks as a deterrent, especially today with all the time between crime, conviction and eventual (maybe) execution is the experience in England in days gone by. At one time in Merry Olde there were about 200-300 crimes that rated the death penalty, often served in god awful manner like drawing and quartering or dipping into hot tar, and the penalty was performed publicly to great crowds. Ironically one of the "crimes" that meriited the death penalty was pick pocketing, yet the public executions were a virtual paradise for pickpockets who used the distraction of the gory "entertainment" to ply their trade in spades...........

What a deterrent, pickpockets using the spectacle of other pickpockets being killed in various grusome manners to ply their trade!

it is interesting to read this article. when the cons tried to bring abortion back to the Commons I knew the death penalty would not be far behind. it is not beyond the realm of possibiity that Harper will give it a try. Crime is at a 42 yr. low but that won't matter to him. People who are crazy and murder won't be stopped by a death penalty.

State sanctioned murder is still murder. it has no place in civilized society. the americans really aren't a civilized people, so it is no surprise they have the death penalty. anyone who thinks the death penalty is an o.k. thing, might want to look at the statistics regarding people who didn't commit the crimes they were murdered for by the state.

Let's see how you feel if it ever happens to your own kid. I bet all the weak-kneed rhetoric comes to a screeching halt then. It's always easy to pontificate as long as the blood shed or pain endured doesn't touch you personally.Just ask cheney or baird or rumsfeld or johnson or nixon. Maybe you should ask the families of manson or chikatilo's victims to see how your mewling bullshit stacks up with them.And it's w waste of my fucking tax dollars to support these heartless, cold-blooded monsters for life. Fuck That!By the way: I truly hope you and/or your little girl never, ever experience any of the above referred to horrors.

Take THIS personally Simon: you're a worthless parasitic insane fuckwit. "The Americans aren't civilized"??? EVERYTHING YOU DO, SAY, AND THINK IS THE RESULT OF SWALLOWING AMERICAN LEFTIST PROPAGANDA EVERY WAKING MOMENT. Your complete lack of awareness of this is pathetic. Go die in a whole, scumbag.

Pork Coquitlam ( Telus 162.156.74.73) I thought I warned you off before. You really have no idea who you are dealing with do you? Consider yourself tagged. Again. We are familiar with your foul internet activities, and will take action to make sure that others are protected.